Paul DeMarco is the counsel with the group that’s working to put the Voter Bill of Rights on the fall ballot. He says the amendment is easy to understand and believes that will make it easier to pass at the ballot box.

"The purpose is to establish the right to vote and to have your vote counted as a fundamental right in Ohio and to flesh out that right by specifically providing for how citizens are to carry out the right to vote and have their vote counted," DeMarco said.

Specifically, DeMarco is talking about making sure weekend voting is part of the plan.

"We set in place weekend voting as part of the early voting process we already have," DeMarco said. "The Saturday and Sunday during the 35-day early voting period is provided for in the amendment. The last two weekends before the general election, it actually provides for a specific number of hours that the polling place must be open, which is usually a minimum of 12 hours."

The plan also calls for other provisions.

"It provides for online voter registration," DeMarco said. "It also provides for solutions to some long-standing problems in the way Ohio has addressed problems at the polls. It declares pollworker error to not be a reason for not counting a ballot.

"It provides ... the most innovative ways that voters can verify their identities at the polling places. We provide no less than 15 options for voters to identify themselves in order to cast a ballot. And it also identifies other problems that we have seen with provisional voting.

"And finall,y it takes away the ability of the state Legislature to diminish voting rights and opportunities in Ohio. The General Assembly can expand them."

Listener Comments:

The republican Party has no shame.Voter PURGING is their game.Stripping Citizen of pride for Country, State, City or Town. Regardless of wealth, education a voter has pride in the fact his voice, his or her voice is heard.
A disgrace for all that serve and have passed serving this Country. In life I have read and seen in media of other 3rd World Countries, but never dreamed of Voter purging in our U.S.A.!
David Diddle